


Tea Time

by RhinoSuplex



Category: Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Related Fandoms
Genre: Angst, F/M, Feels, Forgetting, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-23
Updated: 2016-09-23
Packaged: 2018-08-16 20:29:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 594
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8116435
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RhinoSuplex/pseuds/RhinoSuplex
Summary: Alice always comes round for tea.





	

I stared at the extra place setting that the March Hare had set. For _her_ , naturally. She showed her face occasionally, to be sure, but those visits had already been few and far between as it was.

To be honest, I was over it. In one of my more lucid moments - which I categorized as when I was perfectly capable of holding a conversation without going off on some tangent or another, which led to more tangents... - I realized, with some degree of shock, that I had come to love the girl. So, it was with a heavy heart that I set about the task of forgetting about her. It was much easier to make the Hare forget, mostly because where I was unhinged, he was truly deranged.

And then, just as I had nearly finished forgetting about her, the cruel woman showed her face again. Just in time for tea, as usual. She brought everything rushing back, returning to my life like a whirlwind and exiting just as quickly, leaving it in shambles once more.

This went on for several years. Her visits faded from monthly to quarterly, then biannually, then only annually. On her last visit, I met her at the door, which was a first. Mostly because I'd taken to locking the blasted thing, but also because of what I was going to say to her.

I removed my hat and smiled at her. Donning my hat once more, my smile became pained. Concern was etched across her beautiful face as I wring my hands, searching for the words. I swallowed the lump in my throat, and then I spoke.

"Alice, I'm afraid that I'm going to have to ask you to leave. I cannot do this anymore. I shan't. You come and go as you please, expecting everything to be the same the next time you pop in for tea. You... your very memory fills me with equal parts elation and grief. I... just go. Please. Don't come around here anymore."

I shut the door in her face. I heard her cry, and scream, and rage about how she'd created us, and we existed at her whim.

"You've grown a bit too old for Wonderland, love. I think it's time you moved on." I whispered, before I turned my back and went out to return to tea with the Hare.

Years went by, and then it happened. She forgot about us. Slowly but surely, bits and pieces of Wonderland began to disappear, with my own home being the last to fall, as it were.

I poured myself a cup of tea, the pot and the tea within vanishing almost as soon as they were returned to the table. Being forgotten didn't hurt. It was more a matter of no longer existing.

I sipped my tea, watching as the garden was reduced to nothing, being replaced with a void. Soon, there was only me, my tea cup, the chair I sat upon, and that damnable cat.

"Goodbye, cat. I shan't miss you." The eerie smile, if possible, widened at that remark. I finished my tea with a sigh, then dropped the cup. It dissolved into nothingness as soon as it left my fingers.

Soon, I, too, was dissolving. Everything was gone save my hat, which the cat put on at a jaunty angle. His body faded too, leaving only his smile and my hat.

"Alice," he tutted, "Whatever are we going to do with you?"

The cat's grin, and the hat floating above it spun clockwise once. Soon, they, too, faded.


End file.
